


Eat Me Up From the Inside

by Cocopops1995



Series: Hurt Me With Your Words [7]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Worried Space Dad Shiro, horror(ish), internal injury, poisoned keith, poisoned pidge, voltronwhumpweek2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 20:27:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11859063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cocopops1995/pseuds/Cocopops1995
Summary: As Shiro and the others race Pidge and Keith to the Castle, the effects of the poison only get worse. (Direct continuation of "You're the Poison Running Through My Veins"





	Eat Me Up From the Inside

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rangergirl3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rangergirl3/gifts).



When Pidge opened her eyes it was to a world of disorientation, nausea, and more pain than she had ever experienced before. She wanted to scream from it but found that she only had enough energy to whimper and close her eyes again. 

Her pathetic little whimper was immediately answered by a warm, familiar voice, “Shh, it’s okay. We’re almost there. Just a little longer.”

For a moment Pidge’s heart swelled with happiness. That was her dad! He was here! 

But then the voice spoke again, “Hunk, how’s Keith doing?”

Pidge’s heart plummeted. That wasn’t her father’s voice. It was Shiro. Suddenly there was a pain in her heart that had nothing to do with whatever was wrong with her and she vaguely thought that it was pretty unfair that she had to deal with this much physical and emotional pain at the same time.

“Uh, not so great.” Hunk answered Shiro, “He’s awake, but he really doesn’t look good. How’s Pidge?”

Pidge only noticed that she was being held when she felt the one-armed grip around her tighten.

“Not good. I think she’s conscious, but just barely. Is Keith coherent?”

Her sluggish thoughts finally caught up with the conversation that was going on around her and she felt a spike of worry in her chest. Keith was sick too? When had that happened? What was wrong with him? What was wrong with her?

“Uh, kinda? He’s sort of in and out. But he sort of responds when I talk to him.”

Pidge thought she should try to let Shiro know that she was coherent, she just didn’t have the energy to talk, but then the pain in her everything spiked and for a moment she knew nothing but pain, pain, pain. And then she was swallowed by absolute darkness.

***

Shiro felt his heart stop and then start up again in double time when Pidge suddenly let out a shrill half groan half scream of pain and then suddenly go limp again against as he flew the Black Lion with one hand toward where the Castle of Lions was in orbit above the planet they’d been helping out.

“Pidge!” he exclaimed, “Pidge, can you hear me?”

There was no response. She must have lost consciousness again.  
“Shiro? What’s wrong with Pidge?” Lance asked anxiously, obviously having heard Pidge’s scream over the comms

“Keith, for the love of everything delicious, stop trying to get up!” Hunk’s exasperated voice sounded over the comms a second later.

“I don’t know.” Shiro answered Lance as he urged his Lion to go even faster. The Castle was in sight now, they were almost there. “She’s unconscious again.”

The others didn’t answer but, through the Black Lion, Shiro was aware of the Yellow and Blue Lions keeping pace with them. They’d had to leave the Green and Red Lions behind as their paladins couldn’t pilot them at the moment. 

Shiro glanced down at Pidge and was alarmed to see a trickle of blood leaking out of the corner of her mouth. He was now almost certain that whatever was going on with her and Keith was because of that goo that had gotten dumped on them. He could still smell it on Pidge’s armour. 

The came up to the Castle and Shiro let Black handle landing and was out of the lion the moment Black opened their mouth for him. He headed to the infirmary at a dead sprint, determined to get Pidge into a pod as soon as possible.

Coran was waiting for him when he got there and motioned to Shiro to lay Pidge down on one of the stretchers that were ready and waiting for patients.

Coran’s expression grew grim as he got a good look at what Pidge looked like.

“Shiro, get her armour off while I run a scan to determine exactly what’s wrong with her.” Coran said as he picked up a handheld device, “And do not let that putrid stuff touch you.”

Shiro nodded tersely and went about removing the outer layer of Pidge’s armour, dropping it all in a pile next to the stretcher.

Hunk walked in with Keith once again cradled in his arms as Shiro finished removing the upper part of Pidge’s armour. When Shiro looked up he was relieved to see that Keith at least was still conscious, although he didn’t seem to be completely aware of what was going on around him.

Coran ordered Hunk to place Keith on the second waiting stretcher and to begin removing Keith’s armour as well, and reiterated the command to not touch the goo. Shiro realised a moment too late that being handled like that might not go over well with Keith in the state that he was in.

The moment Hunk gently pulled Keith’s arm up to pull off his gauntlet, Keith actually cried out and jerked away so hard that he nearly rolled off the stretcher. It was all Hunk could do to catch Keith before he tumbled over. Keith struggled weakly against Hunk’s saving grip, still unaware that his friend was trying to help him. 

“Hunk!” Shiro said, “Swap with me.” he was just about finished removing Pidge’s armour anyway, and Keith would, hopefully, react better to hearing his voice.

Hunk nodded and let go of Keith. Shiro glanced down at Pidge and saw that she had lost all of her colour and froze. She looked… she looked… Then he saw her chest rise and fall ever so slightly. He let out a breath of relief and moved over to Keith as Coran came up to Pidge and aimed his scanner at her. 

Keith seemed to be trying to gather the strength to push himself up. He looked confused and scared. Similar to how he’d looked the first time Shiro’d met him. 

Shiro made sure to approach him slowly, with his hands clearly visible. “Keith.”

Keith’s head whipped toward him and Shiro was relieved to see some recognition on his face. 

“Shiro?” his voice was weak and barely there.

“It’s me, Keith.” Shiro said, taking another step forward and, slowly so that Keith could see it, reaching out to put his hand on Keith’s shoulder. “We need to get you out of this armour, alright?”

Keith stared at him for a moment, obviously trying to process what Shiro had just said. Finally he nodded and said, “Okay.”

Shiro went to work on getting Keith’s armour off, all the while keeping an ear on Coran and Hunk behind him to hear what was going on. But he was distracted from that by Keith’s sudden gasp of pain. 

The younger paladin tried to curl up on himself, but Shiro held him still. 

“What’s wrong, Keith?” Shiro asked, reaching out to push his friend’s bangs away from his face.

“Hurts.” Keith muttered, his voice tight with pain.

“Where?” Shiro asked as he went back to removing Keith’s armour.

“E-everywhere.”

Shiro felt his frown deepen at that. What was that stuff doing to his friends?

‘It’s okay, Keith.” He said, “We’ll get you feeling better in no time.”

Shiro glanced back over at Pidge in time to see Coran coming over to him and Keith with an extremely worried expression on his face.

“Coran?” Shiro asked as he removed the last of Keith’s armour.

Coran shook his head, “That goo was most definitely some sort of poison. And,” he gulped and turned a horrified expression to Shiro, “It seems to have been eating them up from the inside.”

For a moment Shiro could only stare as Coran aimed his scanner at Keith. 

Keith’s sudden groan of pain was what shook Shiro out of his shock.

“Coran, what do you mean, it’s been eating them up from the inside?”

Coran glanced up from his scanner, “Pidge’s vital organs have taken serious damage. They’re all on the brink of failure.” 

Shiro felt like someone had just punched him in the gut. Suddenly he couldn’t get any air into his lungs. Whatever poison had been in that goo was literally eating his friends alive from the inside. He thought he might be sick.

Coran glanced back at his scanner, “And Keith isn’t far behind her. I’d wager that the only reason isn’t in the same condition as is Pidge is because of his unique phisiology. I’m going to calibrate the pods for them both. Get ready to put them inside.”

Shiro snapped himself out of his shock once again and got ready to do as Coran said. He glanced down at Keith and saw that the younger man had also lost consciousness again. Shiro resisted the urge to tell Coran to hurry. 

Less than a minute later Shiro and Hunk were placing both Pidge and Keith into healing pods respectively.

“Hey, Coran.” Hunk said as the healing pods shut and froze over, “Shouldn’t we have washed that goo off of them first?”

Coran shook his head, “There was no time. We’re going to have to interrupt the healing cycle as soon as they’re both more stable to wash it off and change them into cryosuits.”

“Will that be good for them?” Shiro asked, noticing that there was still a line of red going down Pidge’s chin.

“It can’t be helped.” Coran said, “If we leave it on them it will just keep killing them, albeit more slowly. Better to get it all washed off as soon as possible than extend their suffering unnecessarily.”

*** 

The first time Pidge woke up she was cold and everything hurt. She didn’t know what was going on, just that she wanted to back to sleep. There were voices talking to her, though, so she forced herself to open her eyes so that she could tell them to shut up and leave her alone.

When her eyes opened she found herself faced with Allura, who smiled sympathetically at her. Allura was saying something to Pidge, but she couldn’t really make sense of all of it. She picked up something about a bath and a cryosuit? Pidge didn’t know how those two things fit together.

What happened next passed in a blur. Pidge remembered being bathed by the Princess, and being helped into a white skin-tight suit that reminded her of the leotards she’d worn when she’d taken ballet for half a year when she was ten. 

It all felt like a very, very strange dream. Then there was a flash of cold and she knew nothing.

The second time she woke up she was much more coherent and, thankfully, pain free. She stumbled out of the healing pod and into Shiro’s waiting arms. The first thought he had was of Keith. 

“Keith,” she said, her throat dry and causing her voice to come out scratchy, “Is he -?”

“He’s fine, Pidge.” Shiro said with a warm smile, “He’s right here.”

Shiro moved so that she could see past him. Immediately her eyes went to where Keith was standing between to Lance and Hunk with a relieved smile on his face. He nodded a little greeting to Pidge and she felt her own lips mirroring his relieved smile as she nodded in reply.

Pidge wasn’t yet entirely sure what had happened, her memories were pretty jumbled, but she was sure that all her friends, her family, were alive and happy. And that was enough for now.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr: www.noisypaintersong.tumblr.com
> 
> Like my work? Please consider [buying me a coffee](https://ko-fi.com/W7W3KRCZ) :)


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